1. Communication plan
Strengthening knowledge management for greater development effectiveness in the Near East, North Africa, Central Asia and Europe

2. Objectives and outcomes
Enhancing the knowledge management (KM) skills of key rural institutions and other stakeholders in Moldova, Morocco and Sudan.
Fostering and promoting knowledge exchange across in-country, cross-country and trans-regional partners to facilitate improved knowledge uptake, transfer, and management.
Outcomes (Direct)
Strong and effective learning systems.
Integration of KM processes and practices.
Outcomes (Additional)
Strategic promotion of information to decision makers, donors and development organizations.
Strategic promotion of information to farmers and rural communities.
The communication plan has two main objectives: Enhancing the knowledge management (KM) skills of key rural institutions and fostering and promoting knowledge exchange to improve knowledge uptake, transfer, and management.
It also has defined outcomes – both direct and indirect. The direct outcomes are strong and effective learning systems – to improve understanding of KM processes and practices; and the integration of validated KM processes and practices within participating institutions.
Indirect outcomes are the Strategic promotion of information to decision makers, donors and development organizations - helping to get ‘research into use; and the Strategic promotion of information to farmers and rural communities – improving technology transfer and enhancing the productivity and climate resilience or rural people, particularly women and youth. 2

3. Target audiences
Knowledge managers in participating institutions: strengthening capacities to collect, package and disseminate knowledge more effectively.
Main donor: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD): providing updates on the progress of the initiative and demonstrating impacts.
Rural communities and farmers: collecting and packaging information, and promoting new knowledge to rural communities and farmers will strengthen technology transfer.
Development institutions and decision makers: promoting new knowledge to decision makers and development partners will encourage investments in new solutions and climate resilience.
The communication plan will involve partner institution knowledge managers so they can raise their capacities to collect, package and disseminate knowledge more effectively. Knowledge managers will also benefit from the development of information products providing guidance on standard KM processes so that best practices can be embedded into their work.
Communication activities will also target the donor – IFAD – to provide updates on the progress of the initiative and demonstrate impacts and milestones. Communicating lessons learned and the effectiveness of knowledge management processes will also help inform the development of other IFAD-funded knowledge management initiatives.
Collecting and packaging information, and promoting new knowledge to rural communities and farmers will strengthen technology transfer and the adoption of new strategies and solutions to enhance rural development and climate resilience. In particular, the initiative will prioritize the targeting of two marginalized groups: rural women and youth.
Collecting and packaging information, and promoting new knowledge to development institutions, donors and decision makers will also encourage investments in KM and new solutions and technologies to enhance rural development and strengthen climate resilience. 3

4. Influence pathways
Strengthening capacity
Initiative
Knowledge managers
Strengthening knowledge exchange
Knowledge dissemination
Rural communities/farmers
This diagram explains the initiative’s influence pathways – how the initiative will engage with and influence the main target audiences. The green shapes are the main activity areas: Strengthening capacity, strengthening knowledge exchange, and knowledge dissemination. The brown shapes are the main target audiences: knowledge managers in participating institutions, decision makers and development institutions and rural communities/farmers.
You will see that at the top knowledge managers will be directly influenced by efforts to strengthen capacity and knowledge exchange. Through training, workshops, communities of practice, sharing lessons learned, and involvement in the packaging of information and the development of new information products we will seek to enhance the capacities of knowledge managers.
At the bottom of this diagram – you will see that we will influence decision makers and rural communities/farmers through the strategic dissemination of information products that reflect the specific interests and needs of these target groups. We will inform decision makers about options for new policies, technologies and strategies; and we will also inform rural communities/farmers about the technologies and practices they can adopt to improve their agricultural production and strengthen their resilience.
The main donor – IFAD – is also a target audience but not included in this diagram as we are not seeking to change the behaviors of IFAD but instead to inform them of on-going progress and milestones.
Decision makers & Development institutions. 4

5. Strengthening KM capacities & skills
Approach document: Identifying KM capacity gaps and learning needs, and providing a resource to monitor progress towards initiative goals.
Learning notes/guides: demonstrating how to integrate standard KM strategies into organizational processes and work practices.
The purpose of the Approach document is to identify KM capacity gaps and learning needs, and provide a resource to monitor progress towards initiative goals. As an open access international public good the document will become a valuable resource for other institutions facing similar challenges. The document is envisioned as a report of pages documenting current KM capacities and processes within participating institutions, with recommendations for enhancing the collection, packaging and dissemination of knowledge. Involving stakeholders in the preparation of the approach document would provide an important learning process – identifying knowledge gaps, priorities and needs would help to raise capacities and enhance awareness of KM principles and approaches.
The learning notes/guides demonstrate how to integrate standard KM strategies into organizational processes and work practices. The guides will act as valuable references for stakeholders, and complement trainings and workshops. We propose a format that is A5-sized with 5-10 pages – with the effective use of infographics. The information could also be adapted for online consumption and repurposed as web-pages. The learning notes/guides will also complement trainings and workshops. 5

6. Strengthening knowledge exchange
Online knowledge hub: a central repository of knowledge that offers rich information and data on new and indigenous practices and technologies to drive more sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation.
Working papers: capturing and sharing learning on work in progress and documenting the implementation of new KM processes and lessons learned.
Strategy reports: syntheses of KM practices and processes adopted and validated in participating institutions, and new knowledge on rural development solutions, technologies, and practices.
The online knowledge hub is a central repository of knowledge generated and promoted by the initiative, and a valuable resource that offers rich information and data on new and indigenous practices and technologies to drive more sustainable agriculture and climate change adaptation. Information products can also be repurposed as web-pages for online consumption. Accompanying forums will help to build and strengthen a Community of Practice that shares experiences, impacts and lessons learned. The hub is envisioned as an open access platform, containing information described according to international standards: Dublin core, FAO Agrovoc and ISO.
Working papers will capture and share learning on work in progress, documenting the implementation of new KM processes and lessons learned. As an open access international public good the document will become a valuable resource for other institutions facing similar challenges, informing the development of KM practices elsewhere. Working papers will be pages and designed for rapid completion and dissemination.
Strategy reports provide syntheses of KM practices and processes adopted and validated in participating institutions, and new knowledge on rural development solutions, technologies and practices. KM strategy reports are designed to inform and influence other knowledge managers in other low and middle-income countries, and strategy reports on solutions will be ‘white paper’ type documents designed to inform and influence decision makers. 6

7. Strengthening knowledge exchange (continued)
Policy and technology briefs: summaries of validated policies, technologies and strategies with scaling-up potential.
Impact briefs: capturing successes and critical lessons that helped strengthen KM processes in participating institutions.
Instructional documents: demonstrating the benefits of technologies and practices – and how they can be applied to generate development impact.
Instructional audio-visual/ICT material: also providing farmers and rural communities with information regarding the benefits of technologies and practices, and guidelines on how they can be applied.
Policy and technology briefs: two-page summaries of validated policies, technologies and strategies with the potential to sustainably raise agricultural production and enhance climate change adaptation.
Impact briefs are two-page documents that capture successes and critical lessons that helped strengthen KM processes in participating institutions.
Instructional documents provide farmers and rural communities with information regarding the benefits of technologies and practices, and guidelines on how they can be applied to generate development impact. They will make effective use of infographics; will be translated into national languages; and repurposed as web-page for online consumption.
Instructional audio-visual/ICT material provides farmers and rural communities with information regarding the benefits of technologies and practices, and guidelines on how they can be applied to generate development impact. 7

8. Knowledge dissemination
Social media: strategically promoting impacts and information products to target audiences via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
E-newsletters: regularly disseminated with links to new information products.
External media engagement: Promoting new knowledge to reach target audiences.
Blogs: promoting successes and progress, new information products, and solutions.
Peer-reviewed journals: capturing learning and contributing new evidence to on-going scholarly debates.
Impacts and information products will be promoted strategically to target audiences via social media – helping direct traffic to the online information hub. Accounts will be established on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; country-specific social media strategies will be developed; and partner social media contacts and networks will be exploited to disseminate information products more effectively.
Regular e-newsletters will be disseminated with links to new blogs, audio-visual information, and new information products; developed on the ‘mailchimp’ platform; also disseminated by partner organizations to their networks.
Targeted s will help to reach specific groups of people who can benefit from the outputs of the initiative. The s will incorporate messaging tailored to specific target audiences – promoting key outputs from the initiative.
Engaging with external media offers a strategic way of reaching target audiences within participating institutions and countries and beyond; presenting the knowledge collected, packaged and promoted by the initiative; and presenting solutions to pressing national and international challenges.
Blogs will help promote the success and progress of the initiative to donors; new information products, technologies and solutions; and help drive traffic to the online information hub.
Peer-reviewed journals articles will capture learning from the initiative and contribute this evidence to on-going debates regarding: the weakness of KM capacities within low- and middle-income countries; how KM can be enhanced to support extension and technology transfer. 8

9. Collecting, packaging & disseminating knowledge
Inventory
Collection
Assess needs
Package
Dissemination
The actual process of collecting, packaging, and disseminating knowledge will help to generate new information products and promote new technologies, policies and strategies to raise agricultural productivity and strengthen climate resilience. Participating in the development of information products will also help strengthen the capacities of participating institutions.
The process for collecting, packaging and disseminating knowledge is as follows:
Step 1: undertake an inventory of existing knowledge within participating institutions.
Step 2: collect, categorize and store this knowledge.
Step 3: assess the needs of target audiences who can benefit from this knowledge.
Step 4: package the knowledge according to target audience interests and needs.
Step 5: disseminate the knowledge products to influence target audiences. 9

10. Key personnel
Project coordinator: coordinating and overseeing all communication and KM activities.
Knowledge Management Officer: assessing KM capacities, identifying needs and addressing those needs through capacity-strengthening initiatives.
Country coordinators: assessing and collating existing knowledge and coordinating dissemination activities.
Consultants: providing back-up support – including technical support for the online information hub and the development and dissemination of information products.
Institutional staff: embedded in initiative activities to enhance cooperation and strengthen capacities.
The project coordinator will coordinate and oversee communication and KM activities: strengthening knowledge management skills; enhancing knowledge exchange; and knowledge dissemination. The Coordinator will also represent the project at key events and IFAD-Partner-ICARDA interfaces.
The Knowledge Management Officer will assess knowledge management capacities, identify knowledge and capacity gaps in participating institutions/countries, and address those gaps through capacity strengthening initiatives.
Country coordinators will assess existing information and knowledge within participating countries/institutions; Collate existing knowledge stored within participating institutions; and coordinate knowledge dissemination activities.
Consultants will be needed to provide back-up support: technical support to help develop the online information hub; the development and dissemination of information products: writing, editing, design, MEL curation, and targeted promotion of information products; validating information and knowledge; and providing advice on intellectual property/legal issues.
Staff from participating institutions will be embedded within initiative activities to enhance cooperation, facilitate teamwork, and improve competencies. 10